Beaumont ISD's electrician of record Calvin Walker makes his way out of the Jack Brooks Federal Courthouse on Wednesday, December 12, 2012. U.S. District Judge Ron Clark has sentenced Calvin Walker to 5 years of probation and ordered him to pay more than $660,000 in restitution, but did not ban him from working for Beaumont ISD, the City of Port Arthur or any other public entity.
Photo taken:
Randy Edwards/The Enterprise
Photo: Randy Edwards

BISD board president Woodrow Reece took to Internet video on Friday to clarify comments he made earlier this week about seeking what might remains of $2 million that school district electrical contractor Calvin Walker forfeited as part of a plea agreement with federal authorities in 2012.In the video, in which Reece appeared seated in front of a nighttime urban scene that is obviously not Beaumont, Reece said he cannot cancel Walker’s contract by himself because he is just one trustee. He said he wants to heal Beaumont and pursuing restitution would help, but his proposal to seek whatever might remain of the money, which went to the U.S. Attorney General’s office for use as a victims’ fund, should not be seen as “an indictment” of Walker.Reece earlier had said he wanted to pursue the $2 million, apparently reversing a position a majority of the board took after Walker pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of failure to pay his taxes in a timely manner.The plea helped Walker avoid re-trial in connection with 37 counts of fraud and other felonies stemming from falsified invoices he submitted to the school district for payment, an acknowledgement of which Walker signed as part of his plea deal. His first trial ended in a mistrial.After the plea agreement, the school district board declined to pursue restitution. Reece was part of the majority that voted to decline the offer from the U.S. Attorney’s office, one which would have required the school district to state that the district was a victim of Walker, whom it still employed.Because he was not convicted on the felony counts he faced, the board’s majority stated Walker did nothing that victimized the district.“We didn’t particularly like the language,” Reece said Friday in a telephone interview about his video comments.DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/dwallach